Giving Hope

Help give the gift of empowerment to NYC women in need this holiday season!

Thank you for being a part of the Bottomless Closet family. Together, we have helped empower thousands of disadvantaged women across New York City to build new careers and brighter futures.

When our clients first come to us, many are living in homeless or domestic violence shelters. Some have been formerly incarcerated. Some have fought their way back from debilitating illness. Many are recent immigrants or refugees. Whatever her situation, each woman who walks through Bottomless Closet’s door is a survivor but by the time she leaves, she is ready to thrive!

The first part of her appointment might take place in our boutique, but the outfit is just the beginning. For our recent client Mireille, it was the key to unlocking her confidence.

Mireille’s Story

Mireille lost her job two months ago, at a time when her house was in complete chaos. Not only had she been working very long hours at her last job, but she was also selflessly collecting donations of clothing and other items for children in Haiti, and organizing them in her tiny studio apartment – something she still does.

She says she felt an instant pick-me-up during her appointment. “I think that what you people are doing at Bottomless Closet is fantastic. Your volunteer coached me and she kind of perked up my trust in myself. She dressed me like a very professional person,” Mireille says.

Evelyn’s Story

Evelyn noticed a big change in her job search after her first visit to Bottomless Closet. “Before I came here, I had sent my old resume to various places for job opportunities, but it wasn’t working,” she recalls. “I was looking for a job for a month and I wasn’t getting any answers back.”
During her appointment, she worked on her resume one-on-one with an employment coach so they could update and improve it. “You fixed my resume, which is something that you don’t pay that much attention to but it’s very important.”

Almost two decades on from when we were founded, our services are needed today more than ever. In 2016, although women made up 48.5% of New York City’s labor force, the women-to-men earning-ratio in New York actually trended downwards.

For our clients, the odds against achieving career success are stacked higher than most and that’s why our model of women empowering women is so important. We know the personal interaction between our employment coaches and our clients – in the boutique selecting the perfect outfit and later working on her resume and mock interview – is foundational to each client’s success. Because rebuilding her self-confidence will take more than new clothes – it takes kindness, understanding and guidance. It takes someone to give her hope.

Denise

Denise has had a few different jobs, but she is still on the path to her dream career. She credits one of those jobs with giving her the strict work ethic she has now. “I worked in corporate banking on the trading floor. That was very intense and face-paced,” she recalls. “The men were more concerned about the dollar signs than the profit. They’re not like us women who care about relationships. They’re just there to clock in and work. I was in that environment for so long, it framed me to be the person that I am. I’m really disconnected sometimes because I’m so focused,” Denise admits.

Currently attending New York University and majoring in Media Studies, her work ethic has even become part of her reputation around campus….

Cricely

It has been a crazy couple of months for Cricely. “I just came here from Puerto Rico on October 15. I was born and raised here in New York, but when I was 14 I moved to Puerto Rico with my mother, so she could take care of my grandfather, and eventually we ended up staying there. I was there for 20 years.

And then Hurricane Maria happened.

“I’ve been through other hurricanes before, like George, but none of them compare to Maria. It was horrible. We had no power, no nothing. With Maria, I had a hunch that the banking systems would be down, so we had taken as much cash out of the bank as we could beforehand.”

This year so far — thanks in large part to your support — 1,800 women have left Bottomless Closet feeling a new sense of hope as they approach their job interviews. Almost a third have been hired and 98% cite Bottomless Closet as the key factor in their success.

If you can make a gift today of $50, $100, or even $150, this will go a long way to enable a woman in need to imagine a different future for herself and empower her to start building her future.

Roselyn’s Story

Roselyn’s personal hero is her mother. “She raised four children by herself, working two jobs as an assistant teacher,” she says, beaming.

To this day, her mother is a constant source of advice and inspiration for her. “She always knows how to make the worst situation into a better situation.”

She looks for solutions immediately – something Roselyn thinks she inherited from her mother. “She would always say to me, ‘This is not the end of it; you have other options. I need you to be a strong, confident woman.’ She would just encourage me to deal with the situation the best way you can, and then from there you can move forward.”

Tiffany’s Story

Most moms can certainly relate to a typical day in Tiffany’s life. “I set my alarm for 5 a.m., I get up, take a shower, get my son dressed, bring my son downstairs so he can get on the van to preschool, then I go back upstairs, get dressed, get my daughter dressed, too. Then we get on the bus, then we transfer to the train, and I drop her off at school.”

Then Tiffany heads to work herself, sometimes on two hours of sleep. Tiffany just started her new job at a nursing home. “I fell in love with them. It’s never a dull moment in a nursing home, no it’s not. They are always cracking me up. Some are very sweet.”

Stephanie’s Story

Stephanie is starting her career in the same place where she started her education – the very same elementary school in Queens that she attended as a kid.
“I am going to be a family worker there, so basically a social worker. The school goes from kindergarten all the way through fifth grade. I’ll be able to help the kids with lots of things – family needs, issues, questions – all of that.”

Shaneice’s Story

Things have really come full circle for Shaneice. She was just hired by an organization that conducts blood drives throughout the five boroughs.
Her job includes spreading the word about the importance of giving blood – something she can personally attest to, as the recipient of a life-saving blood transfusion when she was a child. “When I was younger, they saved my life. So I just felt like, it’s time for me to give back.”

Taieisha’s Story

Taieisha has been dancing since she was a kid, and soon she will be dancing (well, walking) down the aisle of an airplane as a brand new flight attendant for a major airline.
“I’ve been dancing since I was three years old, and I’ve even danced backup for Rihanna, at the VMAs (the MTV Video Music Awards), and once for Drake, too. I also dance for an urban burlesque group here in the city, and I’m a dance teacher for young girls, too.”
Despite dancing in front of crowds, she admits she was super nervous about the interview process.